‘When people ask me… “What is your favourite travel book?” I nearly always name this book. It is about courage, misery, starvation, heroism, exploration, discovery and friendship’ Paul Theroux

The Worst Journey in the World is a gripping account of an expedition gone disastrously wrong. One of the youngest members of Scott's team, Apsley Cherry-Garrard was later part of the rescue party that found the frozen bodies of Scott and the three men who had accompanied him on the final push to the Pole. Despite the horrors that Scott and his men eventually faced, Cherry-Garrard's account is filled with details of scientific discovery and anecdotes of human resilience in a harsh environment, supported by diary excerpts and accounts from other explorers. A masterpiece of travel writing, The Worst Journey in the World is the most celebrated and compelling of all the books on Antarctic exploration.

About the Author

Apsley Cherry-Garrard (1886-1959) was one of the youngest members of Captain Scott's final expedition to the Antarctic which he joined to collect the eggs of the Emperor penguin. After the expedition, Cherry-Garrard served in the First World War and was invalided home. With the zealous encouragement of his neighbour, George Bernard Shaw, Cherry-Garrard wrote The Worst Journey in the World (1922) in an attempt to overcome the horror of the journey. As the years unravelled he faced a terrible struggle against depression, breakdown and despair, haunted by the possibility that he could have saved Scott and his companions.

Praise for The Worst Journey In The World

“'The Worst Journey in the World is to travel what War and Peace is to the novel... a masterpiece'”

New York Review of Books

“The best polar book there is”

Observer

“Probably the best adventure yarn ever published”

Independent

“Remains the masterpiece of heroic travel”

The Times

“The finest book ever written about Antarctic exploration as well as a great literary classic”

Peter Matthiessen

“Over the greater part of a lifetime I have worn out two copies of the Antarctic's classic, Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World”